1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a broadcasting receiver, and more particularly to a broadcasting receiver capable of volume control which is achieved with volume control software obtained through a broadcast wave or the like from outside in addition to pre-installed volume control software. The present invention also relates to a volume control method of a broadcasting receiver.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, OCAP (Open Cable Application Platform (registered trademark)) is known as a standard for cable television broadcasting. The OCAP standard is a North American digital CATV standard, which is a standard developed by a North American cable television standardization organization based on a European digital TV standard “DVB-MHP”. The OCAP standard defines middleware to absorb difference in hardware between different receiver manufacturers and to provide the same service independently of hardware.
According to the OCAP standard, the following scheme is employed. That is, software for implementing various functions is multiplexed in a broadcast wave and then transmitted from a broadcast station. Each receiver downloads software multiplexed in the broadcast wave to perform a new function (refer to Patent Document 1). By this, in addition to video and audio digital broadcast, interactive services, Internet services, and so on can be implemented by digital CATV.
Patent Document 1: U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0020950
Non-Patent Document 1: OpenCable (registered trademark) Platform Specifications, OCAP 1.0 Profile
Non-Patent Document 2: Java (registered trademark) standard, Java Media Framework API guide
For example, according to the OCAP standard, OCAP software for volume control (hereinafter, referred to as an “OCAP application”) for performing volume control needs to be downloaded. Hence, a problem may occur that until download of an OCAP application for volume control is completed, volume change by the OCAP application cannot be performed. To avoid the problem, the receiver needs to be provided with an original pre-installed software (hereinafter, referred to as a “receiver application”) for volume control.
In addition, after download of the OCAP application is completed, two pieces of software for volume control, i.e., the OCAP application and the receiver application, exist, and therefore exclusive control of execution is required between the two applications.
Furthermore, since information such as a volume setting value is not shared between the two applications, a problem occurs, for example, that the volume setting value temporarily may become discontinuous along with switching between the applications.